It really hasn't been Google's week. First the entire internet exploded because of some uninteresting nonsense regarding social networking (really internet?), but today something happened that's actually a bad thing and worth talking about: in Kenya, Google has been caught accessing the databases of a competing business, and offering Google's own product to the people in the database. Google has already apologised, and is currently investigating the matter.

"I personally think the fact that their obviously favoring their products in search is a much bigger deal.

If Microsoft did that everyone would be calling for their head but Google gets a free pass, really?

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Twitter pulled out of a deal with Google. Facebook is entirely closed off. Nw they are complaining about Google+? Pussies. The fact of the matter is that had Google included Twitter and Facebook data anyway, those two (and the anti-Google/pro-Apple standing army with them) would have screamed bloody murder *as well*.

This is such non-news. "

Your love fest with Google knows no bounds.

Google has one business model and one source of revenue: selling information about you (the product) to advertisers (the customer). If one stays focussed on the core business model of any company it is possible to understand their actions and impacts, buying into PR froth like "open versus closed" obscures rather than reveals.

Because of it's business model, selling information about you (the product) to advertisers (the customer), Google has ensure it has absolute access to all (repeat all) data about what everyone does on the web. In order to ensure that no one is collecting information it cannot access Google has done and will continue to do the following:

Use its monopoly search income to destroy other companies business model by offering a free alternative

Use its monopoly search income to buy out those collecting data that it wants

Use its monopoly of search to to apply intense pressure (the latest Google+ episode is a good example) on those who resist opening their kimonos for Google.

This is not a question of good or evil, it is a question of business models and impacts. I fear that, besotted by the freebies that Google tosses out (and they are lovely goodies), many fail to see that allowing Google to become the total owner of all user data on the web and to turn a blind eye as Google attacks and destroys those that block that process is short sighted. Google's business model, were it to achieve it's aim to become the universal intermediator of everyone (which it is quite close to achieving), will significantly undermine innovation. If companies and start-ups know that any web based innovation will bring Google breathing down their neck the moment that their work generates significant user data they will just not bother, or be in it merely to cash in if Google chooses to go the 'soft' route of a buy out.

If you really believe in an open web then Google is not a route to it.